Yesterday I was on a panel sharing with Khailee, talking about founder well-being. The panel was part of a 500 startup course on startup growth and founder mindsets. Then I sat in for the afternoon session on "founder fears, anxieties, identities, attachments" facilitated by Justin from the Good Culture. This morning, I woke up to … Continue reading Founder fears and stresses: A Long Submarine Ride

Angels provide pre-seed fundings to startups to aid their early stage developments. Angels can come together to invest as a group for various benefits. For one, it is a great vehicle for angels to learn from the each other (typically the lead) and also allow angels to cut smaller cheques especially if they are dabbling … Continue reading What is Angel Investment Syndication?

I was watching a documentary on women entrepreneurs in China. Almost every other statement in the documentary was asking the women entrepreneurs if they found it harder as a woman in this journey, if being a man would make their business life easier and so on. I am not sure if there is a cultural … Continue reading Is it really harder for women to start up a business?

This came up when lunching with a friend a few days back. Truth is, I thought it needed a lot of money too. I never thought to angel invest and for me, it was a natural progression from my startup mentoring and advising work. Der Shing and I saw angel investing as a way to diversify … Continue reading How much do I need for angel investing?

This has been bugging me for a while. Seems like a lot of people expect / behave as if everything is free in the startup ecosystem. On one hand, free advice, free space and free mentorship. And on the other hand, when you are a new company, you are expected to offer free trials and … Continue reading Everything for free?

My investment evaluation ratio is 40/15/15/30, founder/ problem & solution/market/ deal terms respectively. Currently in my family angel portfolio, we have done about 20 deals (since 2009 or so) There have been 2 exits (smallish), and 1 write-off. I just signed off on one deal last week and currently waiting to finish up paperwork to … Continue reading Why I didn’t invest in them

(first published on Medium - 29 Oct 2017 ) During my monthly founder peer group meetings, it’s very often to hear updates on how these growth stage entrepreneurs are not sleeping well, irregular eating times or simply just having prolonged flus that would not go away. At the most recent catch up, one shared that he … Continue reading Juggling. Life of an Entrepreneur. Choices and Priorities.